Heath groundsel

Senecio sylvaticus (heath groundsel, woodland ragwort) is an annual herb of the daisy family (Asteraceae), producing a single erect, finely-grooved stem up to about 80 cm tall from a slender taproot. The stem and foliage are sparsely covered with short curly hairs but lack the glandular stickiness of the related sticky groundsel. The alternate leaves are 4–12 cm long, deeply pinnately lobed with toothed segments, and become progressively smaller and more clasping toward the top of the stem. From midsummer to autumn the plant bears a wide, spreading, somewhat flat-topped corymbose array of many narrow, cylindrical flower heads, each about 5–7 mm across with green or black-tipped involucral bracts, a few short and inconspicuous yellow ray florets, and a centre of yellow tubular disc florets. The fruit is a small ribbed achene topped with a soft white pappus. Native to disturbed acid sandy soils, woodland clearings, heaths, and recent burn-overs across Eurasia, it has been introduced to western and eastern North America where it appears as an occasional roadside weed.